Facebook key to campus identity, but also a distraction

Facebook and MySpace have become essential elements in the campus "experience" for Arizona State University freshmen, according to a recent ASU research project.

The study found that most of these students used the sites to connect with their assigned roommates months in advance of arriving on campus. Students typically also joined a Facebook group based on their residence hall. But the very ubiquity and importance of the sites also raised concerns among some students, who worry that these sites become a distraction, encourage a kind of impersonality in relationships, and soak up hours of time better devoted to studies and face-to-face contacts.

While students overall see these sites as important to their relationships with their new classmates and their new university home, they, like faculty and administrators, are still struggling to see the relevance of social networks to academics.

The study was based on a September Web survey of 1,140 first-year ASU students, about 21% of those living in dorms. The results were presented at this week's annual Educause conference in Orlando, where education IT chiefs also debated the merits of open source, and attendees got a peek at where education is headed in the year 2015. 

The study results were presented by Laura Brewer, director of research & evaluation for ASU's Applied Learning Technologies Institute, and Chong Ho Yu, an Institute researcher.

Ninety-three percent of the sample said they were active users of social networking sites (dubbed "SNS" by the researchers). Nearly all used either Facebook or MySpace, with Facebook the No. 1 site by far. Of the Facebook users, 61% said they logged in several times a day, compared with 31% of MySpace users. One daily visit was enough for 20% of Facebook users and 24% of MySpace users.

Many of the Facebook users had started on MySpace in the last two years but changed their allegiance recently, apparently in response to the changes in their own lives, especially graduating from high school and preparing for university life. Brewer noted that comments offered by some of the respondents described Facebook as a "more mature" and "more college-oriented" site, the one "all my friends use." By contrast, MySpace users identified their site as "comfortable" and the place where "my old friends" are.

"When they try to tell you about why they selected a social networking site, it's based on how they see themselves," Brewer said. That self-image is forming and reforming in the context of the new community in which they find themselves on campus, with the SNS apparently both an influencer on and an expression of self. "The question they're answering is 'what does it mean to be an ASU student?' " Brewer said.

In explaining their preference for one site over the other, Facebook users mentioned things like the site design, using words like "simple" and "structured." A number of comments said Facebook was "safer" but Brewer noted it's not clear what they meant by that. MySpace users more often focused on the ability to customize their pages, and used the word "fun" often.